By Joy Ulrickson
Collegian Senior Reporter

By now, you’ve heard all the standard complaints about Hillsdale: it’s in the middle of nowhere, the weather stinks (snow in April!), there’s nothing to do. You’ve almost certainly protested these things yourself.

However, perhaps no one has a better right to make these complaints than Bill Scalia.

He recently moved from Baton Rouge, La., to Hillsdale.

He’s gone from Louisiana State University’s huge campus, an hour away from the debauchery and excitement of New Orleans, to the cold, sparsely populated, and—if you ask most Hillsdale students—boring region of southern Michigan.

But Scalia is making the most of his time as the English department’s visiting assistant professor, bringing his sense of humor and fresh perspective to Hillsdale.

In fact, Scalia said he is happy to be here. After receiving his doctorate last May, he faced an uncertain job market, until Hillsdale contacts at LSU recommended him to the English department, which needed a temporary replacement for associate professor Christopher Busch.

“I went from utter despair and thinking about taking my Ph.D. to Wal-Mart, to a prestigious liberal arts school,” Scalia said.

Scalia began teaching last semester, and will be here through May 2004.

In the meantime he’ll even enjoy the Michigan weather.

Since he and his wife Liz grew up in Louisiana, snow is still a novel experience for them. They “really like the climate here—you have a discernable autumn and a defined spring,” whereas Louisiana, Scalia said, has only two seasons: summer, and “summer-light,” a slightly cooler version.

Weather is only one of many contrasts that can be drawn between Louisiana and Michigan, LSU and Hillsdale.

For example, Scalia said he likes the facilities here.

While some may find fault with Kresge for being too old and perhaps poorly designed, he said that compared to the many old buildings in disrepair at LSU, Hillsdale’s are well-maintained.

Scalia relates this to the problem of government funding he noticed at LSU. He said while students and professors in the south have the same zeal for education as those in the north, it seems that the governments in these areas have different priorities.

“The school always seemed to wind up on the short end of the stick,” Scalia said, adding that many wonder where Louisiana’s abundant gambling revenue goes.

Hillsdale’s independence of government funding provides a contrast: “an attitude that can’t be bought,” he said, “is encouraging and admirable…I hope students recognize how remarkable it is.”

Students will certainly recognize the size difference between Hillsdale and LSU. Hillsdale’s entire student body would fill perhaps two residence halls on the Baton Rouge campus of 31,000.

“Everybody knows everybody here. I can call another faculty member and find out about a certain student…I’ve never had that experience before,” Scalia said, who taught classes while studying at LSU.

Students tend to drop through the cracks at such huge schools, Scalia said, explaining that at LSU freshmen would often disappear after a few weeks of the semester because they had registered only to enter the lottery for football tickets.

His years at LSU have furnished him with numerous anecdotes.

One of his fellow graduate students taught a class in which there was a student they nicknamed Marilyn Manson for his similarities to the rock star.

Other than his unusual appearance, this student was fairly unremarkable, until the day of the final exam.

He came an hour late and apologized for his tardiness, explaining that the police had a warrant out for his arrest. He said he was sorry, but he might have to run out of the classroom if the police showed up.

“So this Manson guy took an hour out of running from the cops to take the freshman English exam,” Scalia said, laughing.

Incidents such as these, which Scalia referred to as “eruptions of absurdity,” tended to spill over on a large campus.

Scalia related that as he was walking through an art sculpture garden on the way back from class one day, when he passed by a woman seated underneath one of the sculptures, reading a newspaper. Nothing remarkable—except that she was naked, and painted green.

“I don’t really know what it was about,” he said, shaking his head. “Dozens of people were passing by and never stopped. Fortunately I haven’t seen anything like that here—at Hillsdale, students are generally fully clothed all the time.”

Of those he’s taught here, Scalia said, “I genuinely like the students….most of the time they laugh at my jokes.”

Department Chair David Whalen says he is pleased with Scalia’s work.

“I’m constantly seeing him with students, helping them out with their writing. He’s very conscientious, he loves his subject matter and loves helping out students.”

Next semester, in addition to the freshman course, Scalia will teach American Literature since 1865, in which he’ll be able to spend more time on his favorite subject. The focus of his graduate studies was 19th century American literature, particularly Emerson and the transcendentalists.

He has a varied range of interests, however: “I have an unabated passion for film,” Scalia said.
His passion is keeping him busy: He is currently editing his dissertation, which deals with the transcendentalists, poetry, film and aesthetics, into book form.

For now, Scalia is enjoying new experiences at Hillsdale, but where will he go once his time here is done?

“I’ll make my way on the job market and see what happens,” he said. “ I really do want to teach and keep up this gig of reading books and talking about them…but, I did get a little glint in my eye when I found that the Wal-Mart in Jonesville was going Super…”